Second Treatise of Government Summary and Analysis of Chapter II: Of the State of Nature

Summary
Locke explains the state of nature as a state of equality in which no one has power over
another, and all are free to do as they please. He notes, however, that this liberty does not
equal license to abuse others, and that natural law exists even in the state of nature.
n order to understand political power, Locke claims one must understand the state of
nature. According to Locke, all humans in a state of nature—which means they are not
part of civilized society—are in a “state of perfect freedom” and equality, and they are
each obligated to mutual love for one another. Locke invokes the words of Sir Richard
Hooker to make his point, who claims all people are obligated to “justice and charity.”

John Locke's Two Treatises of Government

John Locke's Two Treatises of Government is an important contribution to social
contract theory and therefore modern political theory. Social contract theory holds
that government is justified when government representatives operate according to the
consent of those they govern for the sake of their rights. In the Two Treatises of
Government, Locke offers a notion of government grounded in the will of the people
and formed by an ideal notion of contract. While it does not argue for a democracy
exactly, it helped to establish the notion of a sovereign people as the basis of
legitimate rulership. The work was published anonymously in 1689 and emerged in the
wake of the Glorious Revolution.

John Locke authored Two Treatises of Government

John Locke, who was born in 1632, was a pre-eminent English philosopher and
theorist who made contributions to a variety of fields. Locke's Two Treatises of
Government is his most famous contributions to political theory. It was published
immediately after the Glorious Revolution, which it seems Locke's work is meant to
justify. The Glorious Revolution, also called the Bloodless Revolution, took place in
1688 and helped to establish social freedoms of the citizenry, ensure the stature of
parliament, and significantly curtail the power of the monarch. Locke's work helped to
solidify the predominance of contract theory as a source of legitimacy of political
power, which had earlier been introduced (controversially) by Thomas Hobbes.